


That Quiet Moment In Which You Die

by TheyDraggedMeInNowIAintLeaving



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alive Allison Argent, Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Assumes canon happened without deaths, Dead Peter Hale, Future Fic, Growing Up, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, except peter, implied Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski being mates, implied characters, lots of implied things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 08:59:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7970812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheyDraggedMeInNowIAintLeaving/pseuds/TheyDraggedMeInNowIAintLeaving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At some point you have to stop fighting and start living.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Quiet Moment In Which You Die

**Author's Note:**

> Insert usual disclaimers.
> 
> Constructive critism, kudos and other comments welcome. You think I missed something, tagging or rating is of, let me know.

For once Stiles wasn’t the one making the most noise, in fact Derek couldn’t even hear the rest of the pack, all there was was the screeching of the harpies – some things ought to remain in the legends – and super hearing definitely was a disadvantage fighting them. And they could fly, because it was just too easy when the big bad stayed on the ground, so naturally they had to fight creatures that could fly and render them deaf. Not for the first time Derek cursed his sister for going back to Beacon Hills, cursed his uncle for being a raging lunatic and cursed himself for being an impressionable teenage boy riding on hormones and grief.  
The sharp talons gripping his arms and the loss of contact with the earth brought Derek back to the present, just in time to watch Stiles glow, anger marring his face and the silence and dead or unconscious harpies on the forest floor. Derek’s already in motion towards him before he’s even registered that he’d been dropped again, managing to catch Stiles before he, too, collapsed on the ground.  
The ride to Deaton’s took forever and the man’s usual mysterious ways almost made Derek tear his throat out, only the need to constantly touch Stiles saved the man’s life.

  
-

Derek would never admit it, but the first time Stiles got home from college smelling like other people he had no idea how he managed to cross the state line. He endured the good natured teasing he got from Stiles, the little jabs from Lydia and the glares from Erica in stoic silence, taking a huge relieved breath when they left.

  
-  
If the thought of Stiles smelling like other people was bad, Derek certainly wasn’t prepared for when Stiles brought them with him home. Derek had to balance on the very thin line of hating them with all his being while still being friendly towards them. He’s not sure he succeeded, but at least he got rid of the dead trees in the preserve.  
-

Of course things got quiet and there were long stretches of time when the pack didn’t have to fight some supernatural enemy or make sure hunters going through Beacon Hills hadn’t gone rogue, and even for a person as antisocial and well off as Derek had to do something other than lurk in the shadows (again, thanks a lot, Stiles), so he eventually bit the bullet and sought out Sheriff Stilinski.  
Derek couldn’t really confess to a lifelong dream of becoming a deputy, but he’d also admit that maybe, just maybe, his therapist was right when she said he had a hero complex. The Sheriff sent him off to training and for some reason Derek took to it like a fish to water, and before the rest of the pack could even consider if they wanted to go back to Beacon Hills when they were done with college, Derek was driving a police cruiser chasing every speeding soccer mom in the county – even the Sheriff was surprised by the sudden influx of that particular type of culprit.  
And just as Derek had gotten used to his nice, quiet routine a couple of Bonnie and Clyde wannabees pumped up on more illegal substances than the average guy riding his bike into Paris in July, decided that robbing a bank was the highlight of their day. Derek could’ve done without the ensuing gun fight, but at least there hadn’t been any wolfsbane, and Derek could heal.

  
-

Two days later Derek wake up with a headache and tied to a table. At his best guess he’s lying there for a few hours before he finally sees the person who kidnapped him – Derek can’t help but be disappointed.  
It’s a young man, pale in a way that suggests he doesn’t go out much and his hair is greasier than professor Snape’s (Stiles got him those books, he had to read them) and what Derek thinks may be the worst case of Periodontitis in the history of human kind. Sadly the guy also smells like magic and the ropes holding him are laced with wolfsbane.  
He tells Derek all of his sinister plans, while Derek tries to keep his stomach in place and doesn’t listen to a word the guy says, and then the world is the all too familiar pain of a poisoned blade sliding through his skin, until he wakes up later to the sight of an angry Stiles, yelling at him for being reckless and stupid and he drifts off to the most restful sleep he’s had in months.

  
-

To Derek it’s never been a question of ‘if’ but always of ‘when’, and yet he won’t be able to tell how he ended up right here, right now. And all that really matters anyway is that he’s surrounded by the scents of ‘pack’ and ‘home’ and ‘love’ as they stumble over the precipice on a shared breath and erupt against each other.


End file.
